July 15th 2017 – home

I thought organising a Bastille Day party at ours, as we’d originally discussed, might be overkill after Mr A’s on Sunday so to mark the day I decided to treat Mr P to dinner at a French restaurant in Nottingham that Mrs H had recommended on several occasions.

Le Mistral is a cute and cosy place; simple wooden tables feature tiny vases with sprigs of fresh flowers in them. It’s a very laid-back and relaxed kind of place. A place where you might slip in for a midweek dinner if you couldn’t be bothered to cook. Mr P and I were obviously massively overdressed as usual (I wore a black lattice fronted dress with my patent red killer heels) but the atmosphere was chilled and staff were both very friendly so we didn’t feel too daft.

To start, we shared a Camembert which was topped with olives and sun-dried tomatoes. I then had a hake dish which came with vegetables in a prawn. pearl onion and white wine sauce. Mr P went for the duck. We accompanied the meal with a delicious bottle of cotes du Rhone. The food was hearty and rustic to the point that the vegetables were kept refreshingly chunky and, in some respects, completely raw – I left the majority of my red onions but the rest didn’t bother me too much. It wasn’t as refined as thought it would be but I imagine this may be what Provencal cooking is like. It didn’t blow my mind but it was tasty. We ended the night with a nightcap – whiskey for Mr P and a Kir Mistral for me which was champagne and elderflower cordial. This was a revelation – the cordial really took that sour edge off the champagne – it was delightful.

Afterwards, we jumped in a cab and returned home where we went on to share another bottle of red whilst clever Mr P managed to find live footage of the Paris fireworks online. They were spectacular as always. One of my favourite memories is this time last year when we stood on the warm Paris streets drinking red wine and watching as the Eiffel Tower danced with fireworks. It was magical.

Overall, although the restaurant didn’t rock my world (I fear the Sat Bains trip might’ve scuppered all of our future dining out experiences), we had a lovely night. It’s nice to get out of the village and just simply enjoy time with Mr P. We ate leisurely and chatted, something that we rarely do over dinner at home, favouring ‘tea on the knee’. In fact, once the dining room is rid of Mr P’s drum equipment and whatnot, I think I might reinstate eating at the dining table. It seems ridiculous to only use that room when we have people round for dinner. I’ve given Mr P the deadline of August 5th to get the room cleared (we’re hosting an anniversary do that day and that room will be needed) so hopefully he’s up to the challenge.

Updated to include picture of shoes as requested by Bry Jaimea (or at least I think they’re the same ones – if not, they’re almost identical)